of mice and men

Current work: meeja stuff
Listening to: Bach – double violin concerto in D minor
Reading: too tired, last night (which is a shame as I have some fab books lined up on my TBR pile)

Achievements yesterday:

• indexed the local history book (satisfying albeit very time-consuming);
• printed Med Duo #1 and parcelled it up plus various other things ready for the post office run;
• booked blood test for next week (this is completely routine – a check on my underactive thyroid);
• retrieved notes in preparation for interview;
• looked at outline of Med Duo #2.

What I didn’t do:

• go to post office (will do that today);
• have my hair cut (my poor hairdresser has gone down with the lurgy and she sounded terrible – I really felt for her. But as I had to cancel my haircut when Dad went to hospital, I am going to look like Dougal from the Magic Roundabout at the awards do on Monday, sigh. So much for buying elegant clothes and shoes).

Today: radio interview (BBC Radio Norfolk at around 10.15); a visit to the PRB exhibition at the castle; and possibly some time in the archives as well. What I’d actually like to do today is go and sit on the beach and listen to the waves and the seagulls and stare out to sea. Will spare you the Old English poetry. But if you want to look up The Wanderer (here’s a good place for the original text – for a translated version, Richard Hamer’s good), I’m thinking about the moment around line 45 when he’s looking out to sea at the ‘fallow waves’ (i.e. they’re brown with churned-up sand) and the seabirds bathing.

OK, so I lied about sparing you. The poetry’s wonderful, and the North Norfolk coast in winter is the perfect thinking place. Just what I need to help me rethink my outline and improve the conflict. But it’s not going to happen (or even this weekend as we’re meant to have snow), so there’s no point in whining about it.

I also need to do the coding for my new website. It was meant to go live on 1 Feb, and the plan was that I’d code three pages a day. Except I’ve had to give up so much work time this month that it just hasn’t happened. I’m also behind in my parts for various Valentine giveaways on different blogs (come back tomorrow and it will be sorted and I will have links and icons etc).

Burns had it right. The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft agley.